South Africa's captain Aiden Markram plays a shot during the ICC men's Twenty20 World Cup 2024 semi-final cricket match between South Africa and Afghanistan at Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba, Trinidad and Tobago Proteas skipper Aiden Markram again went with two spinners in Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi in the T20 World Cup against India on Saturday. Picture: Chandan Khanna/AFP
India won the toss and chose to bat first, in their T20 World Cup final against South Africa in Bridgetown on Saturday.
Like India, the Proteas did not make any changes to the team that beat Afghanistan in their semi-final in Tarouba on Thursday.
Skipper Aiden Markram again went with two spinners in Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi.
Coming into the final, South Africa have won eight out of eight games in this Cricket World Cup while India are unbeaten in seven matches with the other match rained out.
The Proteas are bidding to become the first SA senior side to win a Cricket World Cup title, after the Under-19 team achieved the feat in 2014. That team also featured Markram and Kagiso Rabada.
Led by Markram, the Proteas advanced to their first-ever final of a Cricket World Cup since South Africa was readmitted to international sport with their semi-final victory over Afghanistan on Thursday. Dating back to the 1992 Cricket World Cup, South Africa had never managed to advance beyond the semi-final stage.
India also had a fairly easy victory in their semi-final, as they thumped England by 68 runs. England were no match for the powerful Indian side, as they were bowled out for 103 in pursuit of 172 to win.
India: 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Virat Kohli, 3 Rishabh Pant (wk), 4 Suryakumar Yadav, 5 Shivam Dube, 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Ravindra Jadeja, 9 Arshdeep Singh, 10 Kuldeep Yadav, 11 Jasprit Bumrah.
South Africa: 1 Quinton de Kock (wk), 2 Reeza Hendricks, 3 Aiden Markram (capt), 4 David Miller, 5 Tristan Stubbs, 6 Heinrich Klaasen 7 Marco Jansen, 8 Keshav Maharaj, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Anrich Nortje, 11 Tabraiz Shamsi/Ottneil Baartman.